Thursday, September 16, 2010

Pope: "Have a care also for your deacons. . . ."

With a tip of the hat to my good friend Deacon Greg Kandra over at The Deacon's Bench, we have the following from the pope's homily in Scotland:

"Just as the Eucharist makes the Church, so the priesthood is central to the life of the Church.Engage yourselves personally in forming your priests as a body of men who inspire others to dedicate themselves completely to the service of Almighty God.Have a care also for your deacons, whose ministry of service is associated in a particular way with that of the order of bishops.Be a father and a guide to holiness for them, encouraging them to grow in knowledge and wisdom in carrying out the mission of herald to which they have been called."

1 comment:

Interesting in light of the recent musings on this blog about deacon as servant that the Holy Father chose from among many titles to designate us by the word "herald", sent to proclaim the Gospel and announce the Kingdom like St. Philip in Acts. How wonderful that he acknowledges the importance of our ministry of the Word as a vital mission of our vocation.

About Deacon Bill

After spending high school and college in Catholic seminary studying for the priesthood, I joined the US Navy and served for twenty-two years. My family and I lived in a variety of places around the world, and my duties involved service as a Hebrew linguist, a Russian linguist and other intelligence-related assignments. After retiring as a Commander in 1993, I have been working in a variety of ministries. I was ordained a deacon of the Archdiocese of Washington, DC in 1990 while still on active duty. As both a lay minister and now as a deacon, I have been involved in adult faith formation, jail and prison ministry, and youth ministry. Even before ordination I served as a parish life coordinator, under canon 517.2, for a small parish community in Maine while stationed at the Navy base in Winter Harbor, Maine. I have the BA (Philosophy) from St. Ambrose University, an MA (Education) from Pepperdine University, an MA (Pastoral Theology) from St. Mary-of-the-Woods College, and the Ph.D. (Theology) from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.